John2000 is the bloke you need to talk about with reference to the Castaways as he used to get in there. It was not my type of club, I preferred the rougher end of the market and it was quite posh in there when it first opened, or so they say.

I had a mate who had a mens hairdressers over the road and up the hill a bit. I spent quite a bit of time in there during the early sixties.

I have this photo of the resident trio at the Castaways the "Waikiki Islanders" taken in 1996.

Phil... Is the club still there. ?? I used to go in that lift every morning, with Noel Gorden, ( she had a flat in town some where, but her house was in Glostershire area,) great time I had in that lift, met the love of my life there, but I was too young, forgot her name now, but she was nice to talk to and to look at, , Anyway, I did some work there, built the ship, cut the beautiful floor, so they could have a stream ( water ) around the boat, the little bridge that you walked over to get to the bar, was a bit Micky Mouse, but thats what they wanted.we had a guy who did all the plaster work palm trees and bamboo ( all out of plaster,) he was bloody good at it too, later he did a of of film work both in the UK and down under, he had a workmate who was a thicky, cooked a can of beans on a primer stove, and forgot to open the lid, it went off like a bomb, beans everywhere, god, what a mess.... J2..

This picture of the Castaways main room was taken from the stage end, and if you can imagine, the balconies extending to the side of the stage and at the end of the balconies 2 LARGE 40 foot palm trees with the bottoms on the back of the stage extension.Well :-One evening whilst Mat was singing his finale ‘Born Free’, Dave Allen (Who was appearing just ‘round the corner at the “Talk of the Town”) had hatched a cunning plot and slid down from the balcony on one of the palm trees (Accompanied by a suitable glissando from me) landing directly behind Matt just as he was going to hit the last note.The fun had only begun..They huddled together for a couple of seconds planning the next move, Dave jumped up on the beautiful white grand piano (Much to the consternation of the club owner John Reeve) and the launched into a sketch they regularly do together at pantomimes. The Nelson-Hardy routine.Maybe you’ve seen it but just in case you haven’t, I’ll describe it.Dave says “Captain, Captain, I see Forty Fousand Froggie French Frigates off the starboard bow”Nelson (Mat) replies “ Hardy, my good man, Fetch me my Red Velvet Jacket”Hardy “Why do you want your Red Velvet Jacket ?”Nelson “So the men won’t see the blood if I’m shot”Hardy runs off and come back with said jacket.Hardy “Captain, Captain, I see Forty Fousand Froggie French Frigates off the port bow”Nelson “ Hardy, my good man, fetch me my Brown Corduroy Trousers”Mat and Dave were very close friends and often appeared on TV on the same show, being complimentary to each other, Dave as a superb comedian and Mat as “Mat”

We played 6 night a week starting at 8:00 pm and finishing at 2:00am. Before each show at the casino/reception and then moving upstairs to the main ballroom to play after the show. Back downstairs to greet the second show audience and then upstairs to finish the night.Over the 4 years we were resident at the Castaways we got to meet some of the nicest people in the business, none more ‘down to earth than Mat Monro’ he never forgot that he was once just a London ‘Bus driver.Some of the other artists that we met at the castaways included :-Tom JonesEngelbert HumperdinkMat MonroLiberaceP.J. ProbySarah Vaughan & Billy EckstineCleo Laine & Johnny DankworthMr. Acker Bilk and his Paramont Jazz BandVal DoonicanThe BachelorsRosemary SquiresJudith DurhamLynn RogersSandy Shore Cilla BlackDiana DorsDave AllenMax BygravesTommy TrinderThe Dallas BoysJack HammerSusan MaughanMorton Fraser Harmonica GangEarl and VaughanLos ZafirosJean-Jacques JordaneMalcolm MitchellBob MonkhouseThe Bonzo Dog doo-Dah BandThe Maori CastawaysMark WynterEve BoswellClinton Ford & The Manhattan BrothersCy GrantThe Barron KnightsKen GoodwinThe Jones BoysThe Other BrothersThe ChantsDuke HazlettMikki and GriffCraig DouglasRonnie CarrolDennis LotisKathy KirbyThe Temperance Seven.....................................................The Group at the Castaways

Just looking at the clippings I notice that Liberace is 4gns including 'Dinner'and the Waikiki Islanders for Christmas lunch was 4gnsAnd we didn't have 'Brother George' to feed.. !!

4gns (Guineas = 21 shillings or £1.1s 0d) in 1964 would be at least£50 now !!.I know why the Liberace show was sold out, but on Christmas Day we had a full house also..

The only reason it's not still going is that someone absconded with half a million of the profits and let the company go bust.. such a pity we would be just eligible for a nice retirement pension now !!

What a great post.I enjoyed reading about your memories.You must have had so much fun.Happy days.

I notice you mention Kathy Kirby,what a great voice.In fact The whole list has the wow factor.[/quotI remember she asked if there was a song we would like her to sing,,,,and knowing she always asked this, 10 of us shouted "seven drunken nights", but sadly she did'nt..J2